Evolution Power – a new entrant to the UK renewables market – has partnered Finnish sustainable investment group Korkia to fund an initial 1GW pipeline.
Evolution Power is pursuing a development programme of both solar and other renewable opportunities, with an overall target of 2-3GW in the UK over the next few years.
The company was set up by Giles Frampton and Conor McNally, who previously worked at British Solar Renewables and Macquarie Bank respectively, with the aim of contributing to the net zero transition by delivering innovative and sustainable projects.
Korkia, meanwhile, is active in the Nordics, UK, Chile and Spain, developing and managing assets with a combined value of over €700 million (£598 million). Mikko Kantero, SVP New Business at Korkia, said the company has “ambitious targets” to develop several gigawatts of renewables in Europe over the next five years, with this to be achieved through partnerships with local development teams such as Evolution Power.
Evolution Power is not the only company to be targeting a gigawatt-scale pipeline, with Enso Energy and Macquarie's Green Investment Group announcing their plans for 1GW of subsidy-free solar capacity across England and Wales last year. Likewise, global renewables firm RES is targeting a pipeline of solar projects in the UK and Ireland totaling over 1GW, with these to all use bifacial panel technology and range from 12MW to 120MW.
In Q1 2021, the UK saw 175MWp-dc of new capacity installed, with this dominated by ground-mounted solar farms, contributing 70% of the quarterly capacity deployed, according to research from Solar Media's market research division.